The Hardest to Learn is the Least Complicated
by feeisamarshmallow
Summary: Jake realizes something about himself, and turns to Rosa.


**Jake realizes something about himself, and turns to Rosa.**

**Originally posted on ao3 17/02/19**

**There are a ton of bi!jake fics, but this little conversation came into my head after watching 6x06 and it wouldn't let me go, so I took my own shot at it. Jake and Rosa have such a special friendship, and it's a joy to watch episodes that feature it. I picture this scene taking place right around 6x05 and 6x06. I headcanoned both Rosa and Jake as bi, before it became canon (well for Rosa at least). However, I've only recently come around to idea of Jake realizing he's bi during the series, as opposed to having been out in some sense since pre-series. Anyways, this is my take.**

**Title from the wonderful Indigo Girls song "Least Complicated."**

B99B99

"Rosa, I think I'm bi."

Jake has dragged Rosa, rolling her eyes, into the evidence lock-up. He asked to talk to her privately, and this is why he loves Rosa. She may act like she was annoyed, but she always had his back. That's why he's standing with her by the shelves of sealed evidence, playing with his hoodie sleeve instead of meeting her eyes.

"I know."

"You—what? How do you know? I just figured it out." Jake looks up at her, bewildered.

"Hah really? Jake your coming out speech to me. That was more than just being a good friend. That clearly came from somewhere."

"Yeah from my alter ego. Max Rosenberg. Hard-boiled private eye. Good Jewish kid from the big city. Obsessed with die hard. Bisexual but can't find the right way to come out to his mom. Oh, oh, ohhhhh." Jake's eyes go wide with the realization.

"Mhmmm. Jake you certainly weren't hiding it."

"I just thought I was confident in my masculinity."

"And that's cool. But dude, 'hot perp alert'. 'I have a crush on AC Slater so get in line?"

"You heard that?"

"You yelled it across the bar."

"Right," he draws out the syllable, remembering the scene at Gina's going away party.

"I know I'm married to Amy," he continues, "but somehow it still feels super important to tell people?"

"Of course, because it's part of you. I almost married Adrian, but that doesn't make me any less bi."

"I just feel that like, this is something I'm supposed to have known a long time ago. Like you, or Captain Holt. Like what if it just got into my head, and I'm just making it all up, for like, attention or something."

Rosa abruptly switches topic. "Remind me again, was Brandon Bliss hot?"

"So hot, Rosa. The hottest."

She raises her eyebrows at him.

"You're not faking it," she reassures. "Besides sexuality is fluid, if you feel like you're bisexual now, then you are."

"So, if you said I wasn't hiding it, do you think the rest of the squad knows?" Jake looks apprehensive at the thought, he reaches back down to play with his hoodie again.

"If you think the rest of the squad knows, you have way more confidence in Scully and Hitchcock than you should," Rosa retorts.

"They are surprisingly competent at times, Rosa."

"Does it bother you if everyone knows?"

"It's just weird if everyone knew but me."

"I don't think everyone knew. I just had kinda a bi sense. You can still come out on your own terms, or not at all, whatever you want."

"Oooh can we call it bidey-sense. Like spidey-sense. Damn Rosa that's awesome. But seriously, thank you. How do you know all this stuff?"

"I spent a long time coming to terms with being bisexual. Plus I had some pretty dope friends who helped me when I finally came out to everyone." Rosa smiles. It's a rare sight, one only earned through a decade of friendship.

"I know the squad will be supportive, and Amy and my mom, too. At least, my mom's very friendly with the lesbian couple who live next door to her. And Amy is literally the best. But, what if they think I'm stupid for not knowing. What if they don't get why I'm coming out now, after I'm already married and everything? What if I don't know enough about like, being bisexual, or the history or whatever, to really be bi?"

Jake takes a breath, ready to launch into another run-on sentence, when Rosa cuts him off. She reaches out and puts her hand on his arm, which is really weird but also really comforting.

"You're gonna make yourself crazy if you worry about the what-ifs, if you try to control how everyone's gonna react. You have to come out because it's best for you, and not worry about what people think." Rosa takes a moment to reflect. "You know, Jake, better than anyone about my mom. About how she took it. But I still don't regret coming out. It was still the best choice for me."

"I don't know why it makes me feel so dumb and scared."

Rosa shrugs, "'cause it's scary."

"Always can count on you to point out the obvious."

"And I'm here for you. Just like you were here for me. Are here for me."

"Thanks, Rosa. I don't know if I'm ready to come out to everyone just yet. Soon, though."

Rosa nods holds out her fist for a fist bump, but instead Jake envelops her in a hug.

They're walking out of the evidence lock-up, when Jake stops short. "Ooh can we make matching tie-dye bisexual t-shirts. Bi-tie-dye. Man the rhyming possibilities with this are endless."

Rosa rolls her eyes again, but it's a loving sort of exasperation. "Fine. But we have to do it at your house. I am not letting you into my newly-decorated apartment with permanent dye. That's an impending-disaster scenario."

~~fin~~

**Rosa's newly-decorated apartment is a little shout-out to my previous fic, "Homecoming", in which Rosa finds redecorating surprisingly therapeutic after coming back from prison.**

**Come say hi on tumblr and rave about b99 with me: feeisamarshmallow**


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